‘Ad’ conman nabbed

Sandasen MARASINGHE

A suspect who urged the public in a Sunday Newspaper advertisement to deposit over Rs 1.7 million in two accounts promising to grant them low interest loans and deceived them was arrested by the Colombo Fraud Bureau.

When the applicants made the request via mobile phone, the suspect had instructed the applicant to deposit Rs 15,000 in an account as the lawyer’s fee. The advertisement appeared on February 14.

The suspect was arrested on February 19 at Maha Ulukkulama in Anuradhapura, Colombo Fraud Bureau OIC Chief Inspector Vidura Jayasinghe said.

The suspect had withdrawn over Rs 1.7 million from the accounts. The suspect along with a companion had urged the applicants to deposit money in two private bank accounts in Homagama and Matale.

Each account had lesser than Rs 100 deposits by the time Police investigated them. The suspect denied allegations against him. He had said that he had lost his national identity card and a racketeer had misused his ID card for this fraud.

The Colombo Fraud Bureau said it had evidence that he was the culprit. It was investigating to arrest the other suspect.

A group of officers including Chanaka, Udaya Kumara and Sunil Shantha led by SI Ekanayake arrested the suspect on the instructions of CFB director Maxi Proctor, Senior DIG K.P.P. Pathirana and Colombo DIG H.N.D. Herath.

The Colombo Fraud Bureau warned the public yesterday to be vigilant and careful when depositing money in accounts of unknown persons deviating from the accepted legal process since they could mostly be cheated.